"You said it was digesting them?" I ground out.
The boy stared at me blankly, then nodded.
"Get it out of you, now! Do you hear me?" I roared.
The boy jumped and squeezed his eyes shut.
I thought he was too scared to move and was about to grab him and yell again when I sensed the yin energy around us shift.
Something was about to appear!
I scanned my surroundings, on high alert.
Two or three seconds later, I caught a glimpse of red.
The phone booth appeared right beside me, close enough to touch.
I immediately reached out and grabbed its door handle.
The phone booth was empty.
"Where are they?" I asked tensely.
"They..." The boy began to stammer again.
The phone inside the booth rang.
I pulled open the door and stared fixedly at the phone.
"Who's calling?" I asked.
I was sure the boy knew the answer. I had one of my own, too.
I was still holding the boy by the wrist and could feel him trembling.
"It's... it's the one from before..."
"They're already dead?" I asked in a low voice.
The boy fell silent.
The phone kept ringing.
"Brother Qi!"
The Fatso and the Skinny came over just then.
I tightened my grip on the phone booth door, my ability surging out of me without my realizing it.
Suddenly, I felt the phone booth change.
"Ah!" the boy cried out.
The square phone booth abruptly transformed into an older-style open-air public telephone.
Its casing vanished, leaving only a public phone mounted on a pole, with a little canopy to shield it from the rain and wind.
My hand suddenly grasped empty air.
The phone stopped ringing, and the public phone disappeared, too.
This thing...
I turned to look at the boy.